Emotion Engine
The 128-Bit Emotion Engine is the first chip of its kind. No other mass-market computer technology on the market comes close to its power. In the PlayStation2, this chip is used as the workhorse of the console. It processes all physics and math calculations.

CPU:128-Bit Emotion Engine
The 128-Bit part of the title means that this chipset both processes information and sends it over a 128-Bit bus (A Bus is the pathway between chips on a circuit board. A wide bus carries more bits of information and is thus faster than a narrower bus. The short Bus is what we rode to school on).
By contrast, the Dreamcast has no true 128-Bit components.

System Clock Frequency: 294.912 MHz
You may think that your PC has a faster processor, but remember that the Emotion Engine has inherently faster 128-Bit processing and it is just a part of the overall PlayStation2 power.

A small note for the really detail oriented: The reason that the speed is 294.912 MHz, is that it must be a multiple of a required processor speed that supports the DVD ROM operations.

Main Memory: Direct DRAM 32MB
DRAM (Dynamic RAM) is much preferred over SRAM (Static RAM) because it is able to store data while transferring other data, making it twice as fast as SRAM. The 32MB of main memory is by far the most for any console we've seen. In fact, the amount of memory is even more staggering if you remember that the Graphics Synthesizer boasts 4MB of texture memory on its own. Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second
This means the memory can store and send up to 3.2 Gigabytes per second. This speeds up overall processor performance. Coprocessor 1: FPU
This stands for Floating Point Unit, which basically means it makes all the calculations.

Coprocessors 2 and 3: VU0 and VU1
These stand for Vector Units one and two. These coprocessors are dedicated to 3D-vector calculations, and determine where the polygons go in 3 dimensions. Emotion Engine Performance

Capabilities: MPEG2 Support
This means that support for MPEG2 DVD ROM compression is handled by the hardware, so your DVD movies will look extra-good. It also means that PS2 developers can compress texture images using MPEG2 compression to save space without taking a hit on game speed.

Performance: Floating Point performance 6.2 GFLOPS
This means the PlayStation 2 can process more than 6.2 billion floating point operations (basic math equations) per second. In other words, this baby can handle physics and math like nothing you've ever seen.

This is about 15 times faster than a Pentium II processor and three times faster than a Pentium III

Performance: 66 Million Polygons per Second Geometry Calculations
This is basically a fake number because; the polygons used for this number are not rendered with all the effects that they will (need to) be rendered with in a real game.

Performance: 16 Million Polygons per Second Curved Surface Generation
This is a better real world test of the PlayStation2, but remember this a best case scenario, in game numbers will be lower. The current PlayStation can only process around 350,000 polygons per second.

Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer"

Clock Frequency: 147.456MHz
You should compare this speed with your 3D card, not your PC processor. (The TNT2 Ultra runs at 150MHz and the Voodoo3 3500 runs around 183MHz.)

Embedded DRAM: VRAM 4MB
Because of the high memory transfer speed in the PlayStation2, its 4MB VRAM is just as effective (if not more) than higher memory PC accelerator cards.

DRAM Bus Bandwidth: 48 GB per second
This is the memory transfer speed, for the 4MB VRAM. Its outlandish speed lets the Graphics Synthesizer process faster.

Pixel Configuration: 64-Bit (RGB, Alpha, Z-Buffer (24,8,32)
This is how the system supports such amazing transparency and color effects. It breaks down like this: 24-Bits are used for RGB colors, 8-Bits are used for transparency effects, and 32-Bits are saved for the Z-Buffer which keeps track of everything in the 3D environment.) This is a highly effective configuration for a graphics unit.

Pixel Fill Rate: 2.4 Gpixels per second
The PlayStation 2 can render 2.4 billion pixels each second. That's more pixels than you could ever need.

Polygon Rendering: The big numbers
Here are the numbers that Sony gives for the Graphics Synthesizer performance. Remember, these are not real-world numbers, but they do give an idea of the system's power. (Definitions for all the effects are on the following page)

75 million polygons per second (small polygons, no effects)
50 million polygons per second (48 pixel quads, 24-bit color, Z-buffering, Alpha Blending)
30 million polygons per second (50 pixel triangles, Z-buffering, Alpha Blending)
25 million polygons per second (48 pixel quads, Z-buffering, Alpha Blending, and Mip Mapping)

Sprite Drawing Rate: 18.75 million/second (8 pixel x 8 pixel sprites)
If anyone still made sprite based games, they could basically use all the 
sprites they ever wanted.

Hardware Effects:Anti-Aliasing (surface and edge)
Anti-Aliasing is a graphics procedure designed to eliminate a stair-stepping 
effect, known as jaggies, occurring at low resolutions. It works by blurring
pixels at edges of lines to make the difference between two color areas 
less dramatic.

Hardware Effects:Fogging
This supports fog effects in 3D without a hit on the processor.

Hardware Effects:Alpha-Blending
This supports transparent textures such as windows and water without 
slowing things down.

Hardware Effects:Multi-pass texture functions
This lets the processor render an object and then render another pass on top 
of it. Developers can use this to add lighting effects, and even bump mapping,
which makes 2D surfaces look like they have real bumps and divots. And acne.

Hardware Effects:Perspective correction
This makes textures shrink down as they head into the difference. It's like 
looking down a straight road and seeing it converge to one point in the far 
distance.

Hardware Effects:Modulation/Highlights
This lets the developer add spotlights and effects to an existing texture rather
than creating new textures for each new effect. This could be used to display 
the effects of dynamic light changes. For instance you could see how a forest
changes (in realtime) from dawn to dusk.

Hardware Effects:Mip Mapping
This simple procedure uses multiple textures for each object so you see one 
from far away and another from closer up. This avoids the ugliness you used
to see in games like Doom where the textures look good from far away but
look awful up close.

Sound: SPU2
Not much is known about the PlayStation2 sound chip, but here is 
what we do know.

Number of Voices: 48ch plus software
This lets developers use the sound chip to provide noises for their games. Duh.

Sound frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz
This provides CD quality sound.

Sound Memory: 2MB
This will help keep games with large sound files running fast.

Supports: Dolby, AC3, and DTS
The PlayStation2 will output sound for Dolby Digital Sound, the older AC3 
technology and even DTS sound. If you've got a top of the line receiver then 
you'll get the most out of your PS2. This also means that the DVD aspect 
of the console will be on par with the very best DVD players.